CAUCASUS CONCISE

Georgia’s defence minister said she does not expect Georgia to become a NATO member this July, when a summit of the alliance takes place.

There will need to be a consensus among all 28 NATO countries before Georgia can join, Tina Khidasheli told journalists on Tuesday.

“Some people find it difficult in Georgia to adequately understand the news,” she said, saying Georgia had met the criteria for a Membership Action Plan (MAP), of the sort which Montenegro was offered last December, and is now set to become NATO’s newest member.

July’s summit will see all NATO countries’ heads of state meet in Warsaw, with Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine and Syria high on the agenda.

Article 5 of NATO mandates all countries in the alliance to come to the military defence of another if its sovereignty it is attacked.

Georgia’s situation is complicated by the fact the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have effectively been Russian control since the war of August 2008.

Georgia will also be discussed at the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday, foreign minister Mikheil Janelidze said on a visit to Brussels. The country is hoping to soon complete a visa-liberalisation deal with the European Union, which would enable its citizens to travel more easily in Europe.

Commonspace.eu is an activity of LINKS (Dialogue, Analysis and Research)
in the framework of the European Partnership for the Peaceful Resolution
of the Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (EPNK 3) -
A European Union Initiative